The conventional bill deposit/withdrawal machine mounted on an automated teller machine used in, for example, a banking organ or the like includes a deposit/withdrawal port for accepting bills (or paper money) inputted by a user, delivering the bills inputted by the user, and accepting bills to be discharged to a user, a bill discriminating unit for discriminating bills, and a bill transport path for transporting bills while passing them through the bill discriminating unit. The construction of the conventional bill deposit/withdrawal machine further includes the combination of units including a temporary storage box for temporarily accepting deposited bills, a deposit box for accepting deposited bills, a withdrawal box for delivering bills for withdrawal, a recycle box for accepting and delivering bills for both deposit and withdrawal, a reject box for accepting deposited bills which are not accepted in the deposit box or the recycle box and bills which are delivered from the withdrawal box, but not withdrawn, and a load/recovery box for delivering bills to be supplemented for the recycle box and accepting bills recovered from the recycle box, an so forth. Various constructions have been proposed for the construction and arrangement of those units and the route of the bill transport path for connecting those units.
For example, in an example described in JP-A-7-267513, two ring-like transport paths passing through a bill discriminating unit in one direction are configured in a character xe2x80x9c8xe2x80x9d form. In one of the ring-like transport paths, a deposit port, a withdrawal port, and a temporary reserve unit are arranged. In the other of the ring-like transport paths, a recycle box and a recovery box are arranged.
In an example described in JP-A-10-188074, a bidirectional transport path passing through a bill inspection unit in both directions is provided. A deposit/withdrawal port, a temporary storage box (a temporary reserve accepting unit), and a recycle box (a 10,000-yen bill and 1,000-yen bill accepting unit) are connected to the bidirectional transport path.
With the spread of automated teller machines, there is an increasing need for a bill deposit/withdrawal machine which is smaller in size, lower in cost, and easier to use while assuring the functions and performance of the conventional machine. Regarding bills to be handled, on the other hand, there is required a machine which can handle not only Japanese yen bills but also foreign bills with the increase of handling of foreign bills in the territory of Japan and the increase of a need for bill deposit/withdrawal machines outside the territory of Japan. Furthermore, there are machines of various types according to needs. There is required a bill deposit/withdrawal machine which can be widely used and which can cope with a wide variety of needs, such as the bill kinds to be handled, arrangement of a bill slot for deposit and withdrawal regarding the user operation, the front or back face operation regarding the operation of the clerk in charge, and the bill box casing regarding the security.
In the conventional technique, a bill deposit/withdrawal machine of return type which recycles deposited bills for withdrawal includes a deposit/withdrawal port, recycle boxes for respective bill kinds, a bill discriminating unit, and a bill transport path. The bill transport path has such a complicated construction as to join/branch around the bill discriminating unit in a branch form. For instance, in the example shown in the aforementioned JP-A-7-267513, a bill transport path includes a first ring-like bill transport path which passes through a bill inspection device and pass through a lower part of a deposit/withdrawal port, and a second ring-like bill transport path which passes through the bill inspection device and pass through a recycle box. The bill transport path thus constructs a xe2x80x9ccharacter 8-shapedxe2x80x9d bill transport path. In the example described in JP-A-10-188074, a bidirectional transport path passing through a bill inspection unit in both directions is provided. A deposit/withdrawal port, a temporary storage box, and a recycle box (a 10,000-yen bill and 1,000-yen bill accepting unit) are connected to the bidirectional transport path. This bidirectional transport path is composed of three bidirectional transport paths requiring respective separate driving sources. At the time of deposit operation (operation before deposit determination and operation after deposit determination) and at the time of withdrawal operation, directions of respective transport paths need to be switched independently.
Such a machine operates in an automated-machine corner of a banking organ in an unmanned state for a whole day, and needs to operate for cash deposit/withdrawal transactions of users with high reliability. For example, in deposit transactions, various users might input a folded or broken bill to the deposit port or input a coin or an alien substance together with bills to the deposit port by mistake. When delivering such a bill, it might incline largely or be broken. Depending upon the transport state, there is not a little possibility of jam occurrence in the bill transport path. Furthermore, in a machine capable of handling foreign bills as well, not only the number of bill kinds increases as compared with the case of Japanese yen bills, but also the size of bills largely differ in both the longitudinal and lateral directions according to the bill kind in many cases. There is a possibility of a large number of bills inputted to the deposit port being largely disturbed in evenness. Furthermore, as for the degree of fold and breaking of bills, there are bills in conditions worse than those of Japanese yen bills, when seen from the circulating situation of bills in various countries. In the above described conventional example, the bill transport path has complicated branch/confluent points. Therefore, reduction of bill jams in the bill transport path becomes an important problem.
Furthermore, in the above described conventional example, the construction is expandable and universal as to the number of bill kinds to be handled. However, the above described universality capable of coping with various needs concerning the operability of the user and the clerk in charge and security has not been considered.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a bill deposit/withdrawal machine having a simple bill transport path construction.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable bill deposit/withdrawal machine which is reduced in bill jam not only for Japanese yen bills but also for bills of various sizes.
A third object of the present invention is to provide automated teller machines satisfying various specifications as to the operability of the user and the clerk in charge and the security, and provide a bill deposit/withdrawal machine having a high general-purpose ability as to the operability of the user and the clerk in charge and security.
The above described objects are attained by a bill deposit/withdrawal machine according to the present invention having a deposit/withdrawal port, a bill discriminating unit, bill accepting boxes, and a bill transport path.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, a deposit/withdrawal port and a bill discriminating unit are disposed in an upper part of the bill deposit/withdrawal machine, whereas bill accepting boxes are disposed in a lower part of the bill deposit/withdrawal machine. A bill transport path is constructed so as to be able to be divided into the upper part and the lower part. Apart from a machine casing surrounding the whole of an automated teller machine, a bill box casing surrounding only a lower part of the bill deposit/withdrawal machine composed of a lower bill transport path and the bill accepting boxes can be mounted. The lower bill transport path is disposed near the wall face of user""s operation side of the bill box casing, or near the wall face of the opposite side.
In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, the lower bill transport path is constructed so as to be openable and closable in order that the bill accepting boxes can be individually operated in the horizontal direction of either of the user""s side and its opposite side.
In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, the lower bill transport path is constructed so as to be reversible in the forward-backward direction in order that the lower bill transport path is disposed on a side opposite to the user""s side in the case of a machine of front operation type and on the user""s side in the case of a machine of back operation type.
Owing to such constructions, automated teller machines of various specifications in aspects of operability of the clerk in charge and security are provided. In addition, a bill deposit/withdrawal machine which is highly versatile in aspects of operability of the clerk in charge and security can be provided.
In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present invention, the bill transport path is formed of a ring-like main bill transport path for transporting bills through a bill discriminating unit unidirectionally, unit transport paths for connecting a deposit/withdrawal port and a temporary storage box to the main bill transport path, and a bidirectional accepting box transport path for connecting at least one bill accepting boxes to the main bill transport path.
In accordance with a fifth aspect of the present invention, a temporary storage box includes a rotary drum, winds bills transported from the bill discriminating unit around the rotary drum one after another to store the bills, and transport the wound bills to the bill transport path by rotating the rotary drum reversely after materialization of a predetermined transaction. The temporary storage box serves not only as a temporary deposited bill storage box for storing bills kind-settled in the bill discriminating unit out of deposited bills until materialization of a transaction, but also as a temporary withdrawal rejected bill storage box for storing bills which are not kind-settled in the bill discriminating unit out of bills delivered from the bill accepting box at the time of withdraw transaction, until materialization of a transaction. As a result, a highly reliable bill deposit/withdrawal machine which is simple in bill transport path construction and low in risk of bill jam for bills of various sizes can be provided.